Former CIA spy details the moments he feared for his life

Intelligence officers do not scare easily, but when you live with the constant threat of death as CIA spy and whistleblower John Kiriakou has, there are countless moments throughout your career that leave you fearing for your life.

Kiriakou survived multiple assassination attempts and lived under constant surveillance during his time at the 'the company', where he fought against violent communist guerrillas in Greece following the fall of the Soviet Union, before taking on the massive role of Chief of Counterterrorist Operations in Pakistan after 9/11.

The highly-trained and decorated agent saw a great deal in his time as an operative, overseeing a campaign of assaults on Al-Qaeda safehouses that captured dozens of fighters for interrogation, which often involved torture.

Revealing this fact saw Kiriakou thrown in prison for 23 months during the Obama administration after he confirmed that waterboarding was a standard tactic used by the CIA during its counterterror operations.

Now, in a new interview with LADBible for its Honesty Box series, the former senior agent revealed some of his closest shaves with death, as well as some tricks of the trade.

John Kiriakou lived with one eye open for most of his career (LADbible)

After being asked if he ever feared for his life, the ex-spy revealed he had faced the threat of death 'several times', but there were two main attempts on his life - one of which was a major international affair.

In June 2000, Kiriakou explains he 'got lucky' when a violent communist group carried out a public killing of Western officials in Athens.

"Unfortunately my next door neighbour got killed instead," he explained.

The leftist guerrillas 17N chose to shoot British Brigadier Stephen Saunders after he emerged in a non-armored vehicle, Kiriakou has previously claimed.

They mistakenly believed he was an RAF commander who had been involved in the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, when he was actually an army peacekeeper in Kosovo.

In another incident, Kiriakou described how he had been forced to 'neutralize the threat' after discovering another plot to end his life.

"An enemy country sent one of its officers and a double agent to kill me," he detailed. Without mentioning which nation sent the assassins, he explained how the plot was foiled.

The CIA had received 'advance warning that it was going to happen' which allowed Kiriakou and his fellow agents to 'neturalize the threat'.

But not all threats to your life as an intelligence operative are so straightforward. The former spy shared another experience that 'troubled [him] deeply', while working in Pakistan during the early 2000s.

"I was staying in a small guest house because it was safer than a big hotel," Kiriakou shared. "Sure enough, the big hotel was blown up and 45 people were killed in the time I was living there."

But that was not even his closest shave, as he soon realized he was being tailed.

Kiriakou held a Top Secret clearance level during his time at the CIA (Getty Stock Image)

"I left my guest house at a different time, like I did every day, and took a different route, like I did every day... and I noticed that a man on a motorcycle wearing a red helmet was trying very hard to stay in my blindspot."

At the end of a long day, Kiriakou spotted his tail once again, leaving the highly-trained agent in little doubt that he was being surveilled - and that he had to do something about it.

When he informed his station chief, he was told: "Well, you know what you have to do," to which Kiriakou replied: "I know, I'm going to kill him."

But, in a moment of inspiration at the end of a meeting with local militia groups, Kiriakou thought to turn and ask 'General, are you following me?' But after hearing their denials, he told them he would kill him the next time he saw him.

Just like that, his tail vanished.